FAYZ Recovery
by the-mortal-dhampir
Summary: Story centers around Astrid, Sam, and Diana after the FAYZ, and how they cope with the loss of their friends. Sam/Astrid. Some Caine/Diana, although Caine is still dead. Just a little something that had been running around in my head for a while that I was itching to write. Contains spoilers.
1. Chapter 1: Astrid

Astrid took a deep breath. Plastered on a smile. Stood a little taller. Straightened her jacket.

Walked on stage and tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach.

'A warm welcome to Astrid Ellison, survivor of the Perdido Beach Anomaly!'

Astrid wore the same smile she had worn to every interview since the FAYZ wall disappeared – the one that hurt her cheeks to sustain. But today was different – today was the release date for Astrid's book. Which was good, Astrid supposed. Finally, finally she would be able to give the unlucky ones, the ones who could not call themselves the survivors, the story they deserved.

She remembered being unsure of how to go about telling the story. Should she include the worst parts? Should she bend the truth, just a little, to protect her and her friend's secrets? She sat staring at her laptop screen for hours, hours - _how do I start it? What do I write? – _until Sam sat beside her, traced the outline of her face tenderly, and whispered 'Tell the truth. All of it'.

Astrid did.

She wrote for hours upon end, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, always remembering. It was then that Astrid realised that she never wanted to forget, not ever, not even the worst times. She would remember the moment the Breeze appeared, grinning, holding Drake's head in her hand like a trophy. She would remember her charging at Gaia with all the fury of a hurricane, her eyes shouting _'yes, yes, come and get me, come and see what the Breeze will do to you for hurting my friends'. _She would remember watching Quinn grow, watching him find himself, watching him change from a coward to a brave fisherman. She would remember Orc in all of his drunken madness and compassion and regret, remember him misquoting the Bible horrendously, reminding her of her faith, insisting that _yes, _yes_, _there was a God in the FAYZ. She would remember Dekka, saving the kids from falling to their deaths, remember her fighting for her friends until the second the wall came down, despite the horrors she had faced. She'd remember Dahra, working night and day to help the injured until her very last breath. Lana, the saint, working herself to the bone saving lives, Lana, without whom the number of deaths in the FAYZ would have doubled. Mary Terrafino, who, despite everything, gave so much to the kids. Mary, who didn't deserve to die that way. Diana, who watched as the child she gave birth to was possessed, watched as the boy she loved sacrificed himself. Diana, who walked through Hell with her head held high. She would remember how in the end, Caine redeemed himself, loved, saved the people of the FAYZ. She would remember the feel of Drake's whip on her back. She would remember the faces of all the bodies of those who died, and the circumstances of those too mangled to identify. She would remember how it felt to be helpless, to be starving, to be on the brink of death.

But most of all she would remember Sam. She would remember finding her night dress in his bed where he slept, remember feeling as though everything would be ok, everything would always be ok if she had Sam. She would remember waking up next to him for the first time and feeling as though a hole in her that she didn't even know existed was filled.

The FAYZ taught her how there has never been such a thing good and bad, but instead a million shades of grey. She would remember how heroes could become murderers and murderers become heroes. She would remember that there is no right and wrong, only circumstances and situations.

So Astrid wrote all of these things, shared her most private thoughts and secrets with anyone who would take the time to read it. Which seemed like the best thing she could do at the time, but now, with all these people watching, waiting in anticipation, Astrid Ellison was _nervous._

She responded to the interviewer's questions with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, and tried to ignore the images playing in her mind. But the picture of her mother and father reading the book, reading about the terrible things she'd done, kept torturing her. She could imagine their poorly disguised expressions of horror, imagine exactly what they were thinking – _how could our sweet little Astrid possibly do that to her little brother? _It made her sick_. _

Astrid headed home to Sam and Diana with a tear in her eye, anticipating the highly welcomed meaningless words of comfort.


	2. Chapter 2: Diana

_Diana lay in the soft sand basking in the sun. She hadn't been here since the end of the FAYZ, and was currently wondering why she was here now. A dark figure loomed in her peripheral vision, and even without looking, she knew it was Caine. She had to see him, needed to see him, needed to ask how he was here, how he was possibly alive. She needed to give him a sloppy wet kiss full of tears. Diana sat up straight. But she couldn't turn her head. Couldn't. Something was stopping her. _This is my body_, she thought_, I control it._But it was no use.__And then he was behind her, his strong arms, no longer skinny with starvation, encircling her waist, his nose nuzzling her neck and his soft lips trailing gentle kisses on her shoulder. She wanted, needed to kiss him, but _she could not turn around**. **_So instead she let his hands and lips do the work__**. **__Abruptly__**, **__the unknown force that wouldn't let her see his face, twisted her around to see him. Diana screamed. Perched on the ground with a deadly smile on his face was not Caine. It was Drake._

Diana awoke with a start. No, no not again. She was sick of nightmares. Suddenly she was crying, crying big fat tears for Caine. Caine. She wanted Caine. If Caine was here he would have said, 'so technically you just had a naughty dream about me' and she would have said 'no way, I had a nightmare about you, I think your ego is large enough as it is'. And then they'd have laughed and he would have kissed her and-

She had to stop torturing herself. But she opened her drawer and unlocked his letter from its special box anyway. She read it for the millionth time.

_Diana:_

_I'm sorry for hurting you. I know I did. _

_I'm most likely dead now, and I guess if there's any kind of fairness in the afterlife I'm probably in Hell getting roasted. But if that's where I am, I want you to know, I still love you. Always did._

_Love, _

_Caine. _

Diana knew it off by heart by now, but still, every time she read it, the words stabbed her in the heart and made her smile at the same time. She laughed out loud – he was such an idiot. So dramatic. So self-centred. And yet somehow he loved her and she loved him.

'You sick, creepy guy.' she murmured to herself with a smile, shaking her head. And then she burst out laughing, laughing uncontrollably, laughing hysterically, laughing at the weirdness of it all, laughing at the unfairness of it, laughing at how after everything, Caine, _Caine_ sacrificed himself. Laughing at his dumb letter to the Brattle-Chances, how he had to manipulate even from death. Laughing at how he got his blaze of glory in the end.

Laughing at how wrong he was – if there was any kind of fairness in the afterlife, he'd be in heaven eating grapes, probably trying to overrule God. He'd probably get bored of being around good people, probably wish he was in Hell, but Diana knew one thing: he'd wait for her. And no matter what happened in this life, she would love him forever, and when she died she would kick whatever crappy husband she found to the kerb and run straight into Caine's arms, whether it be in Heaven or Hell.

And with that she started to cry. She fell to her knees and sobbed, sobbed for hours, clutching her letter to her heart, trying to hold on to that last piece of him. She didn't know how long she stayed there for. All she knew what that, after her eyes were sore, and no more tears would materialise and on her legs were the imprint of the carpet pattern, Sam appeared. She must have looked a mess, crouching on the floor like a beggar, but he sat down next to her and put his arm around her. She cried into his shoulder, thankful for the close contact of a human being. They sat like this for hours: her letting go of every locked up emotion, Sam holding her, whispering nonsensical words of comfort into her ear, telling her that it was ok, even though it wasn't. But she was grateful anyway, grateful that she had a friend who cared at all. Two friends, actually. Sam and Astrid. She thanked God for letting her have them, even after everything she'd done.

And then there was a knock on the door, and Sam and Diana looked at each other.

'I'll get it' she said with a watery smile, 'it's probably just Astrid'.

And sure enough, there, standing in the doorway with puffy red eyes and wet cheeks was Astrid.

Taking in the sight of each other, they laughed. What a coincidence; they had both chosen to break down at the same time.

'You look awful 'Astrid sniffled.

'You don't look too good yourself' Diana replied.

And then Sam appeared, and Diana watched the emotions that played out on his face as he looked at Astrid. First, love. Just plain, undisguised, flat out love. Then, as he took in her unhappy state, a worried expression. And then, as if borrowing the emotion from her, a heart-breaking sadness that he struggled to conceal. But he was Sam Temple, and Sam Temple could not hide his emotions.

He embraced her, kissed away the tears, held her, and Diana felt a surprising stab of bitter jealousy. How was it fair that Astrid got someone to kiss away the pain, someone to wake up next to in the middle of the night when she'd had a nightmare, someone to soothe her with love? How was it fair that she got Sam and Diana couldn't have Caine?

Diana felt shame and regret; how could she think that? How could she take away their happiness just because she couldn't have what she wanted? She loved Sam and Astrid, loved them with all her heart. In fact, the two of them were the only two people she really did love that were still alive.

At this moment they remembered her and drew her into the hug. They stood like this for a while, and suddenly a thought came to Diana: she could survive without Caine, just for this life, no longer, if she had Astrid and Sam.


	3. Chapter 3: Sam

Why did this keep happening to him?

Sam wanted to surf. That's it. He didn't want responsibility, he didn't want publicity. He wanted to surf. Which was why the first thing he did after the press interviews and the whole being-confined-to-a-hospital-with-guards-outside-y our-door business was over and done with, was call Quinn.

One of the things Sam liked the most about Quinn was that all you had to do was drop him a quick call, anytime, anywhere and 5 minutes later he'd be standing at your door in his trunks leaning on a surf board with a 'well hurry up then' look on his face.

So Sam and Quinn went surfing, and for the first time in what felt like a century, Sam relaxed. That was, of course, short lived. Because it was there, at the beach, when it happened.

He surfed for about an hour before people recognised him. And when they did, they were not shy about approaching him. Someone shouted 'look, there's Sam Temple!' and suddenly he was swarmed by a mêlée of kids and adults alike.

'Sam, you're a hero!'

'So brave for a young boy!'

'I wish I could shoot lights out of my hands'

'It was so cool when you torched that evil baby like a mother-f**king blowtorch!'

'Astrid is so lucky!'

'Can I get a picture with you? I want to prove to my friends that I actually saw you!'

'Man, must have been some scary sh*t in the FAYZ'

Sam attempted a half-hearted smile, gave up, swore under his breath, looked at Quinn in astonishment, and tried to answer the many questions being thrown at him. Eventually he resigned from trying to please everyone and broke into a run, dragging Quinn along next to him. They reached the place where Quinn's mother was parked, waiting for them, and jumped into the car.

'Dude, what _was_ that?' Sam asked, gaping at Quinn.

To his surprise, Quinn grinned. 'Brah, you're famous now. Get used to it'

Sam's face was a perfect picture of sheer bewilderment. Famous. Sam Temple, famous. He pondered this for a minute and wondered if he could, actually, really, honest to God, be famous. The thought made him laugh out loud, and after a while Quinn joined in, and the two of them sat in the back of Quinn's car in hysterics whilst Quinn's mum sat in the front and shook her head in affectionate perplexity.

'Dude, I can't have that happening every time we go surfing. Do you think if I really beg, Astrid will buy a private beach with the money from her book?'

Quinn snorted at this, looked at him as if to say, 'you're joking right?' and said,

'Nah man, she'll probably use the money to cure starvation or donate it to an orphanage or open a school for disabled kids or stop global warming or some other heroic sh*t'

Sam laughed, while Quinn's mum cleared her throat and gave Quinn a condescending glare for his choice in language, which made Sam laugh even harder. It was probably true; she _would_ spend the money to save the world. Sam loved her for this but also wished she wouldn't; he really _did_ want a private beach.

'So, no beach for me, I guess.'

Sam arrived home to find Astrid sat on the sofa staring at the phone as if she expected it to grow wings. The sight of her made his heart flutter a little bit, although he would never admit it. Sam could imagine who she was anticipating a call from: her parents. He knew she was worrying about their reaction to the content of the book, which made sense. They'd all had to do things they weren't proud of in the FAYZ, and it would be hard to understand unless you'd lived through it. Sam supposed you couldn't blame them if they were angry; they could never wrap their head around the difficult situations and decisions they'd had to make, and that wasn't their fault. A year ago, Sam probably wouldn't have understood. But that didn't mean Sam wasn't going to personally kill her parents if they so much as gave Astrid a disapproving look.

Astrid looked up as she heard him approach. He sat down next to her and she gave him a sad smile that broke his heart.

'Hey, what are you doing?' Sam asked, although he knew.

'Nothing... I just… what if they decide they hate me?' Sam didn't have to ask who she was talking about. He wanted to tell her that if they hated her for the things she did in the FAYZ, they sure as Hell didn't deserve her, but he knew it wouldn't make her feel any better. Neither would lying to her.

'Astrid… maybe they'll understand…' he caught her disbelieving look and tried again. 'Maybe they won't, but Astrid, it doesn't change the fact that you did everything right in the FAYZ. They're your parents and they should be proud of you, and if they're not, well, they're-' Sam stopped himself and breathed. Then he opted for a more direct method of reassurance.

He leaned over and brushed his lips against hers, ever so gently. She kissed him back, more insistent. Astrid grabbed a mound of his hair as he deepened the kiss. His heart was thumping wildly in his chest and she was so close but not close enough and he needed her closer closer closer, so he yanked her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close until they were a single being. Her hands slid under his top and the places where her fingers touched were burning and freezing at the same time and he loved her, he loved her so much and she was straddling him and she pressed against him and this was it, this was heaven, he was in heaven with this girl and –

'Ew, get a room! Seriously, my innocent eyes should not be subjected to this'

Sam swore and Astrid leaped off of him, abashed.

'This _is_ our room, Diana,' Astrid said, blood rushing to her face, 'it's not our fault you constantly choose to walk in at the wrong moments.'

'I do have a habit of doing that, don't I?' Diana teased with her trademark grin, 'anyway, I have something important to tell you, so stop eating each other for two minutes and listen.'

_**AN: There you go: more Sam**____** Reviews? Next chapter will hopefully be up by Tuesday. Thanks for reading! Any advice on my writing would be extremely helpful – this is my first fic**_____


	4. Chapter 4: Lana

'Why don't you just let me tell them?'

Lana, as usual, sounded confident and self-assured. However, in reality she felt the complete opposite. Sam and Astrid jumped up and tackled her into a bear hug. She grinned at them and tried to seem as cool and indifferent as she could, but it was a half-hearted attempt. Lana was dreading what she had to say next, but knew delaying it would only make it worse.

'So, um basically,' she wiped her palms on her jeans, 'I'm moving in with you. Surprise.' There. She'd said it. And now the inevitable…

'That's great, Lana! But may I ask why?' Lana saw Diana shoot Astrid a pointed look. Too bad Astrid didn't see it.

'I thought you were moving to Vegas with your parents…?' of course Astrid would be the one to ask. She rolled her eyes internally. That girl never stopped asking questions. Well, might as well get it out of the way…

'Yeah, um, they kind of kicked me out of the house,' Lana tried to sound nonchalant, 'their loss.'

And then she shrugged for added effect.

And now for the pitying looks. Sam and Astrid looked at her all sympathetic and understanding and kind and she hated it. A lot of people liked playing the victim. Not Lana. In fact, Lana couldn't think of anything worse.

'I don't care, obviously. You don't have to look at me like that, you know. I'm fine. Where can I sleep?'

She saw Sam smile at that.

'Nice to see you haven't changed,' Sam joked, 'come upstairs and I'll show you to your chambers, princess.'

Her 'chambers' turned out to be a medium sized room with a queen sized bed. It was nice enough, she thought. Nicer than the youth hostel she'd spent the last week in trying to track down Sam and Astrid and Diana.

'You can stay here for as long as you want, you know. Indefinitely, if you'd like,' Sam said.

'I'll keep that in mind,' Lana said, hiding a smile. Sam, always the hero. She turned around then, and set her bag on the bed, signalling that she wanted some privacy. Sam took the hint and turned to leave. But just as she began to relax, he poked his head through the door frame.

'Oh, and Lana? Quinn's been asking about you. A lot,' he said with a pointed look.

At this, her stomach did about 27 backflips and her heart was in her foot but she just looked down as Sam walked away.

Quinn. She hadn't spoken to him since the FAYZ wall had come down. She remembered when she thought… well, that didn't matter now. That was the past.

Besides, she was sort of with Sanjit. Wasn't she? They had definitely been together in the FAYZ, but since then, she'd seen him only twice. Him and the Brattle-Chance kids had moved to LA with their 'parents', and they'd been keeping in touch only with the odd phone call. Were they still together? She had no idea. She_ thought_ they were.

Lana used to laugh at girls who tried to make long distance relationships work. What was the point in being with someone you never saw? None. Nill. Zilch. Nada. That's what she always said.

Was it true? Was she being stupid? She needed to talk to Sanjit, soon. Did she love him? She didn't know. She liked him, sure. He cared about her, she knew that. He was funny, very funny, and very witty. He made her laugh, and he could keep up with her. He could put up with her at her worst. Technically speaking, he was all she ever wanted in a guy.

But then there was Quinn…

Did she like Quinn? Yes, she thought so. More than Sanjit? That she didn't know. What about when Quinn found out she was here? Would he want to see her? Did she want to see him? She didn't know. She was scared to see him, scared to see if her reaction to him was the same as it had been in the FAYZ. What if he liked her? What would she do then? She wouldn't go behind Sanjit's back. Not in a million years, not after everything he'd done for her.

After she'd finished unpacking and made herself look half-decent, she went downstairs. She found the others sitting in the living room arguing over whether to order a pizza or a Chinese.

'I say pizza,' she inputted and slid onto the couch next to Diana.

'See, 3 against one. Sam, we're ordering a pizza,' said Astrid.

They sat and talked about nothing for a while, which Lana loved but would never admit. She liked having friends she could talk to all night without worrying about anything. She wondered if this would be how she would spend the rest of her life, staying up and talking to the three of them. She decided that, if it was, she was ok with that.

A knock on the door broke their conversation.

'I'll get it,' Lana offered, 'it's probably the pizza.'

Lana's belly rumbled in anticipation of the up-coming meal as she walked to the door. Before the FAYZ she hadn't particularly liked pizza; in fact, she hadn't liked a lot of foods, but that had changed. One thing she had learned from the FAYZ was never to turn her nose up at a good meal. There was another knock on the door – apparently they'd gotten the impatient pizza delivery guy.

'All right, all right I'm coming!'

She yanked open the door and there, with such an innocent look on his face, and looking so heartbreakingly normal, so together, so not broken, so unlike her, was Quinn.

She very nearly fell over. His face matched hers.

'Quinn!' she said, at the same time he said, 'Lana!'

Oh God, this was not going well. Already.

'Hey, um, what are you doing here?' he was worse than her.

'Oh you know, I um, just having a pizza. Well, waiting for a pizza. I thought you were the pizza man.' Maybe not.

'Well, I'm not the pizza man,' cute shy laugh, 'I mean, like, what are you doing, you know, _here_?'

'Are you asking me a philosophical question, Quinn? You should know better,' she was getting her act back together and avoiding his question at the same time. Score 1 for Lana.

He grinned a huge grin that stretched across his face from ear to ear, a grin she missed more than she should have.

_Sanjit. Remember Sanjit. _

'You know exactly what I mean,' he said. Something must have given her away: was it her stance? Her expression? The way she was nervously twiddling her thumbs? Whatever it was, Quinn, being Quinn, interpreted her emotions. 'But if you don't want to tell me then, whatever, that's cool.'

'My mum kicked me out,' she blurted, 'I, I mean like, we had loads of fights, she saw that picture, you know? Accused me of loads of things, got angry and basically told me to get lost and never come back.'

Why did she say that?

'Lana-'

'No, Quinn, don't. Why are you here anyway?' she sounded rude. She didn't want to be rude. She wanted to take back everything she just said.

He was looking at her like he wanted to fix her. Well, she didn't need fixing.

'Lana, listen to me-'

'Why are you here?' again, harsher than she'd intended.

He sighed.

Why wouldn't he just get angry at her?

'Sam left his phone in my car. I was just going to return it.'

'Return it then.'

She was acting like a brat and she knew it. She did it all the time with Quinn. She hated that he could see through her tough façade, hated it. Why did he always have to make her express her stupid _emotions._ She was perfectly happy to keep them bottled up for the rest of her life.

He walked past her into the living room and avoided her gaze. She'd done it. She'd hurt him. He tried to hide it but she could _see_. And she hated herself. Why did she always have to hurt the people she cared about?

_Sanjit. She cared about Sanjit._

It was becoming a mantra for her.

She rearranged her features and followed him in. Quinn was talking to Sam and Diana about God knows what, so they paid no attention to her as she walked in. Astrid, however, did. She gave her a knowing little smirk and then looked meaningfully at Quinn. She then tilted her head subtly towards him, indicating for Lana to go and talk to him. Ha. No way. Lana sat as far away from Quinn as she possibly could.

The pizza really did come about 10 minutes later. Someone invited Quinn to stay; after all, there was more than enough to go around. Unfortunately. Lana couldn't face him. Why did she say all that? Why? Why did she ruin everything? He probably didn't want to speak to her either. Why would he? If he did, he probably just wanted to help the broken girl; he was nice like that. She didn't want his charity.

The group then proceeded into a conversation that was awkward only for her and Quinn. Lana nodded along and refused to be baited by Quinn's admirable attempts to include her in the conversation.

She wasn't really listening until she heard Diana say her name.

'Lana, anyway, you haven't even told us how Sanjit is!' she could practically hear her smirk.

Her first thought was _shit._

Her second thought was _why was my first thought shit? There's nothing between me and Quinn, so therefore nothing I have to hide!_

Her third thought was _I am going to kill Diana._

'Oh, he's fine, I think,' that was good. Vague, but not too vague. Maybe she should have dropped the _I think_, but too late now.

'You think? Did you break up or something?' definitely should have dropped the _I think. _

'No!' she said defensively, 'well, not really.'

No no no no no no no no no no no no why did she say not really why why why why why

'Not really? Expand,'

'Oh, you know, just like, it's hard with the long distance and everything, I've barely seen him,' that was a good answer, 'but we talk on the phone a lot,' she mentally high fived herself. _Excellent_ answer.

She looked at Quinn. He seemed to be tremendously interested in the pattern of the tiles on the floor.

Thankfully, the topic of conversation changed after that. Diana seemed to have had her fun. Lana went back to nodding along absent-mindedly.

After it had gotten dark, Sam and Astrid excused themselves and went to bed because they were 'tired'. Diana made a suggestive comment about how neither of them was getting any sleep, and Lana had to agree with her.

Suddenly Lana was hyper-aware that it was only her, Quinn, and Diana left in the living room. Regrettably, this forced her to talk to Quinn. She kept the conversation to a minimum and made polite conversation about safe topics that couldn't lead to follow-up questions about risky subjects. After about an hour of this awkwardness, Diana announced suddenly that she was going to bed. Great. Just her and Quinn left.

'We should probably go to bed too,' probably? Definitely.

He raised his eyebrows.

'No, I mean, separately,' dumb. She sounded so dumb.

He laughed, and it was the purest sound she'd ever heard.

_Sanjit._

She got up to leave.

'Lana wait. No, let me speak,' he said as she was about to cut him off again, 'what you told me about your parents… that sucks.'

'Yeah, thanks for clarifying,'

'Lana, I… look, you were the bravest out of all of us in the FAYZ, ok? Braver than anyone. Braver than Sam… I-' he paused, seemingly about to say something, and then thinking better of it, 'I was nothing. But you… from start to finish, you were so brave. Every single day you were brave. Just because your mum's being an idiot right now – and it is temporary, she'll come around – but just because she's being an idiot doesn't take away the fact that the number of survivors would have halved without you. You… God, I don't know how you did it. You survived the coyotes, and you helped hundreds of injured and dying kids, I mean, that kind of responsibility… it must be hard, you know, to have on your own, but you coped and you never stopped going, you never even slowed down. And you fought off the Darkness, I mean; you were the only one who could do it, Lana. If that doesn't make you the strongest person in the world, then I don't know what does.'

Silence.

Her cheeks were wet.

With a start, she realised she'd been crying. Lana wiped the tears away quickly, but she knew he saw. Suddenly she was clinging to him, and he was holding her and whispering to her and she was safe here in his arms. He said it would be ok, and for some reason, she believed him.

_**AN: thoughts? I love writing from Lana's POV, she is such an interesting character to write! Any requests on specific character's involvement or ships and I will take them into consideration. Also, any other fic requests would be nice! For other fandoms also. **_


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